1. Definition

Intercultural Communication studies how people from different cultural backgrounds communicate with each other. It covers knowledge from many disciplines, including psychology, philosophy, anthropology and sociology. The American anthropologist Edward T. Hall is said to be the father of Intercultural Communication. He once said that the ultimate reason for intercultural communication is to learn more about how one’s ownsystem works. So, the primary objective of this course is to arouse ourcultural awareness, build cultural confidence, and besides, be well-preparedfor intercultural communication.

2. History 

Intercultural communication is as old as history. It occurs whenever there is communication between people from different cultural backgrounds, as what happened on the Silk Road in ancient China, in Marco Polo’s stay, Monk Jianzhen’s mission to Japan, and Zheng He’s seven voyages to the Western Seas. But as a discipline, its history is rather short. The term was first proposed by Edward T. Hall in his publication The Silent Language in 1959. Ever since, it developed very fast. Because of convenient transportation systems, innovative communication systems, economic globalization and widespread migrations, it has become a necessity for college students today to know more knowledge about intercultural communication, so as to communicate effectively with people from other countries and solve problems across cultures.

3. Model of Intercultural Communication

Two American scholars, Samovar and Porter, illustrated model of intercultural communication through the following picture. Culture A and culture B are closer in distance and similar in shape, one square, the other octagon. They bear more similarities compared with culture C, which is farther away and different in shape. So it will be easier for people from these two cultures to communicate with each other.

That is to say, the more similarities two cultures share, the less influence culture will have on communication. Therefore, the less messages will be changed during communication. The less the cultures are alike, the more likely the messages will be changed. Misunderstanding in intercultural communication often arises here. 

4. Two obstacles in intercultural communication

There are two obstacles that hinder successful intercultural communication. One is stereotype, the other is ethnocentrism.

Stereotype is a fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality. Ethnocentrism is the ideas and beliefs of one particular culture, and the using of these to judge other cultures. Both stereotypes and ethnocentrism are harmful in intercultural communication. They block us from seeing the goodness in other cultures, even lead us to errors in decision making that may carry the potential for negative consequences.

Case 1 Disneyland in France

Intercultural communication plays a vital part in international trade. Disneyland in Franceis a typical failure in business arena due to the negligence of intercultural differences. Even after 37 years of opening, this Disneyland is still losing money, and is at the introduction period of the product’s life cycle.

跨文化交际，重庆交通大学饶巧颖等，学银慕课网，1.4 Defining "Intercultural Communication"

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跨文化交流，东北大学王立婷等，中国大学慕课网， 1.4 Intercultural communication

http://mooc1.xueyinonline.com/nodedetailcontroller/visitnodedetail?courseId=205945280&knowledgeId=185460780

What elements will influence the quality of intercultural communication?

Four elements affect the quality of intercultural communication. They are perception, verbal process, nonverbal process and contextual elements.

Perception element involves beliefs, attitudes, values, and worldviews in a culture. All of these form the value system which sustains a society and shapes people’s value orientations. For example, in group-oriented society, harmony between people is emphasized. People tend to be indirect, mild, and modest. While in individual-valued system, the rights of an individual are the most important and people tend to be direct and open. Therefore a good understanding of different ways of thinking in different cultures will help us better our response to specific intercultural contacts.

Another element that will influence intercultural communication is verbal process which focuses on the study of different languages. Language is a major means of communication and it is heavily influenced by culture. To be successful in multicultural contact, we’d better have a good command of the target language and the connotation and denotation of some specific words and patterns in the language. For example, the English idiom “as clever as an owl” may confuse Chinese because owl has the meaning of “misfortune” in stead of “cleverness” in Chinese culture.

Nonverbal element refers to signs, symbols, gestures, postures, time, and space etc.  Nonverbal language plays an important part especially in intercultural contact. For example, in different cultures, the distance between people during communication process is different and improper distance may produce discomfort, dissatisfaction or even hostile attitudes.

Contextual element means in the process of communication, context such as surrounding circumstances, relationships of communicators, communicators’ age, sex, title, etc, will influence the quality of communication. For example, in Arabian countries, it is improper for a foreign businessman to shake hands with a local woman because it is forbidden to have such physical contact between different sexes in that culture. Information conveyed from the same symbol in low-context culture and high-context culture may be very different.